Each year I facilitate a number of workshops through the Bureau of Education and Research (BER.) They have just announced my schedule for the 2014-2015 school year, and I am sharing it with you in the hope that you will join me! For more details check www.ber.org or contact me at anne@ideasforeducators.com.Using iPads and the Current Best Apps to Improve Learning of Your Students with Special Needs (K-6) November 17, 2014 Peoria, IL November 18, 2014 Chicago, IL November 19, 2014 Dallas, TX November 20, 2014 San Jose, CA November 21, 2014 Pasadena, CACurrent, Best iPad Apps to Enhance and Strengthen Student Learning (K-6) December 15, 2014 Boston, MA December 16, 2014 Manchester, NH December 17, 2014 Albany, NY December 18, 2014 Rochester, NY February 2, 2015 San Jose, CA February 3, 2015 Sacramento, CA February 4, 2015 Pasadena, CA February 5, 2015 Anaheim, CA February 6, 2015 Phoenix, AZCo-Teaching that Works: Effective Strategies for Working Together in Today’s Inclusive Classrooms (K-12) March 16, 2015 Rochester, NY March 17, 2015 Newark, NJ March 18, 2015 Long Island, NY March 19, 2015 Burlington, VT March 20, 2015 Detroit, MI April 20, 2015 Atlanta, GA April 21, 2015 Houston, TX April 22, 2015 Dallas, TX April 23, 2015 Tulsa, OK April 24, 2015 Phoenix, AZCo-Teaching that Works, National Train-the-Trainer Institute December 2 – 5, 2014 Boston, MA

This week I was working with a creative group of teachers from American Leadership Academy in Arizona.The teaching ideas were being generated so quickly that the temperature rose to 116 degrees! I challenged the group to develop variations on the traditional "ticket out the door" idea. Here's one of the ideas a teacher shared.

Give the students a paper that has the outline of your state, repeated twice, like the example below. Better yet, save the prep time and just have students draw it.

Have them label the left as "State" and the right as "Restate."

Direct students to "state" what they learned in the lesson, and then paraphrase or "restate" what they learned.

Memory experts tell us that students need to recode learning into their own words in order to move it into long-term memory. This is such a simple way to do that! I especially love that it can be used by any teacher, any subject area, any grade level!

Keep students actively attending during read aloud or lectures with these Brain Bursts!

Combine a brain image with a burst image, print, laminate and adhere to a wooden craft stick.

Explain to students that their brains have bursts of electricity when they make connections and think about new ideas.

Then give each student a Brain Burst and ask them to use their dry erase markers to write the concept of the day on the brain. In this example, students were learning about similes.

They kept the Brain Bursts on their desks, and were encouraged to raise it high whenever they heard a simile. During read aloud time there were several, but the teacher also used them in her conversation throughout the day.

Students were paying attention and excited to have the opportunity to share their brain burst with the class.

One of my summer projects is to develop more lessons that integrate augmented reality (AR.) A few weeks back I described AR in a post about a specific app that utilizes this technology. I was so inspired by the reactions of the students, that I have been playing around with Aurasma, an app that lets you design your own AR experiences for free.

In addition to using it in classrooms, I am going to model it in my adult workshops. My first try is with a workshop handout I occasionally use to review Marzano's top instructional strategies research. I have augmented it with a video clip of Marzano explaining his big mistake. To see my AR overlay, follow these steps:

Download the free Aurasma app onto your mobile device.

Click the search icon.

Enter annebeninghof's Auras and choose to follow.

Once you are following my channel, click the frame icon at the bottom of the screen.

Scan the above photo of the handout about Marzano.

A purple swirl should appear to show that the image is triggering the overlay.

View the brief video.

In the fall I will blog about many of the ideas I create this summer with Aurasma. What will you create?